EDITORS’ NOTE: This online version of the Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary is a work in progress. The manuscript, originally produced in the 1930s and ’40s, is currently being revised and expanded, and will be updated periodically. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome; please send to eglossary@theosociety.org

For ease of searching, diacritical marks are omitted, with the exception of Hebrew and Sanskrit terms, where after the main head a current transliteration with accents is given.

Ga-Gl

Gabriel (Hebrew) Gabrī’ēl [from geber might, power + ’ēl divinity, god] Power or might of God, my power of divinity; in the New Testament represented as one of the archangels who stand in the presence of God, sent to announce to Mary the birth of Jesus (Luke 1:19, 26-31). Among the Nazarenes, Aebel Zivo was also called Gabriel Legatus (Gabriel the Messenger). With the later Jews Gabriel was regarded as one of the seven archangels; likewise in Christian theology he belongs to the hierarchy of archangels and perhaps to the first, which are equivalent to the virgin angels or kumaras (SD 2:246). The angel Gabriel watches over Iran or Persia, according to popular view; and in Ezekiel’s vision of the cherubim or the four sacred animals, the face of the eagle corresponded to Gabriel. In ancient astrology, he was the ruler of the moon and the sign Taurus.

With the Gnostics the term spirit or Christos was known as the messenger of life, also called Gabriel, which Irenaeus states took the place of the Logos born of the cosmic Mother or Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit was considered one with the aeon, cosmic life. Gabriel is also one with the higher ego or inner divinity.

Gaea.See GAIA

Gaekarena.See GOKARD

Gaganesvara (Sanskrit) Gagaṇeśvara [from gagaṇa sky or the verbal root gam to go + īśvara lord] The lord of the sky, the lord of those who move; title of Garuda because of his dazzling splendor, for Garuda represents an occult aspect of the sun, most especially as the occult lord of migrating and peregrinating monads within the solar system. Garuda often is represented as a flying or wandering bird.

Gah (Pahlavi-Persian) In Zoroastrian tradition, a day is broken into five periods or gahs: the period of daybreak, the period of midday, the period of afternoon, the period after sunset to midnight, and the period from midnight until the stars disappear. The second was the most celebrated gah because when the sun was at its meridian and there was no shadow, Ahura-Mazda performed the ceremony of prayer with the Amesha-Spantas in order to overcome the adversary.

Gahambars In Zoroastrianism, the six periods, or the periodical evolution of the world. These include Maidyoizaremaya when the heavens were formed; Maidyoisema when water originated; Paitishahya when earth solidified; Ayathrima when vegetation arose; Maidyairya when animal life appeared; and Hamaspathaedaya when man appeared. A seventh cycle is supposed to come after a certain cycle, after which the Persian Messiah will appear, seated on a Horse. (BCW 3:462)

Gaia, Gaea, Ge (Greek) [cf Latin Tellus, Terra earth] One of the older gods, described as the first being that sprang from Chaos and as giving birth to Uranos (heaven) and Pontos (sea); yet it was by Uranos that Gaia gave birth to the titans, cyclopes, and hecatoncheires. This apparent anomaly is due partly to the variable meaning of the word earth, which may mean either primordial matter in process of formation, or the earth as already formed. Gaia is thus in one sense equivalent to Aditi or the great cosmic deep. With Chaos and Eros, Gaia forms the primeval trinity. Gaia is represented by its initial, gamma, which is also the third letter in the Greek alphabet and thus indicates the third stage of cosmic evolution. As the primordial mother, she was worshiped as the nourisher of all things, also as the goddess of death to whom all must return.

Gai-hinnom.See GEI’ HINNOM

Galukpas.See GELUKPAS

Gambanteinn, Gammanten (Icelandic) [from gamban repay + teinn staff; or from Swedish gamman joy + ten staff] Used in the Icelandic Edda in Skirnismal to denote a magic rod with which the messenger of the god Frey, Skirner (radiance), sought to woo the giantess Gerd (a race of humanity) on the god’s behalf. The tale appears to relate an avataric descent to the human world.

Gamma Third letter in the Greek alphabet. Its capital form often stands for Gaia, the goddess or divinity of earth, which in its cosmic aspect is the third stage of evolution. Alphabetically it corresponds to gimel, the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet; and in the English alphabet is replaced by the hard guttural, C.

Gan-Aeden.See GAN-EDEN; EDEN

Gana (Sanskrit) Gaṇa [from the verbal root gaṇ to count] A group, flock, troop, multitude, number, class, etc.; in the plural used for troops or classes of inferior deities (devatas), considered as Siva’s attendants, and under special superintendence of the god Ganesa (often used in the compound forms Ganadevata or Ganadevas). These celestial beings are said to inhabit maharloka: “They are the rulers of our Kalpa (Cycle) and therefore termed Kalpadhikarins, or Lords of the Kalpas. They last only ‘One Day’ of Brahma” (TG 124).

Also a series of asterisms or lunar mansions placed in three classes: that of the gods, men, and rakshasas.

Ganapati (Sanskrit) Gaṇapati Ganesa. See also GANESA.

Gandapada.See GAUDAPADA

Gandhara (Sanskrit) Gāndhāra The third of the seven primary notes of the Hindu musical scale. See also SHADJA

Gandharvas (Sanskrit) Gandharva-s Hindu devas or divinities called celestial singers or musicians. Esoterically they are intermediaries between the gods and mankind, and hence can be called the instructors of humanity in the secret science.

“The Gandharva of the Veda is the deity who knows and reveals the secrets of heaven and divine truths to mortals. Cosmically — the Gandharvas are the aggregate powers of the solar-fire, and constitute its Forces; psychically — the intelligence residing in the Sushumna, Solar ray, the highest of the seven rays; mystically — the occult force in the Soma (the moon, or lunar plant) and the drink made of it; physically — the phenomenal, and spiritually — the noumenal causes of Sound and the ‘Voice of Nature.’ Hence, they are called the 6,333 ‘heavenly’ Singers and musicians of Indra’s loka who personify (even in number) the various and manifold sounds in Nature, both above and below. In the latter allegories they are said to have mystic power over women, and to be fond of them. The esoteric meaning is plain. They are one of the forms, if not the prototypes, of Enoch’s angels, the Sons of God, who saw that the daughters of men
were fair (Gen. vi.) who married them, and taught the daughters of the Earth the secrets of Heaven” (SD 1:523n).

The heavenly consorts or saktis of the gandharvas are the apsarasas, their negative or vehicular aspects, much as a person’s soul is the container and vehicular expression of his spirit and will.

The gandharvas are similar to the various classes of Greek daimones or to the classes of the Christian angels; the highest classes of the angels, or the highest gandharvas, are equivalent to the higher dhyani-chohans. They are intelligent streams in the cosmic economy, at times active and at times passive in the working out of karmic destiny.

Gandunia(s).See GAN-EDEN

Gan-Eden (Hebrew) Gan ’Ēden [from gan garden, park + ’ēden] Sometimes Gan-Aeden, Gandunia. The garden of Eden; in the Assyrian tablets it is rendered gan-dunyas or gan-dunu, which is also a name of Babylonia. See also EDEN; PARADISE

Ganesa (Sanskrit) Gaṇeśa The Hindu god of wisdom, son of Siva, who lost his human head which was replaced by that of an elephant. As he who removes obstacles, he is invoked at the commencement of any important undertaking, likewise at the beginning of books. In some respects he is thus equivalent to the Egyptian Thoth or Thoth-Hermes, the scribe of the gods. Ganesa is the chief or head of multitudes of subordinate spiritual entities — a necessity if as the god of wisdom he accomplishes his cosmic labors through subordinate hierarchies of intelligent and semi-intelligent beings, acting as their director or guide in forming and guiding nature.

Ganga (Sanskrit) Gaṅgā The Ganges, the sacred river of India. The Puranas and old tales of India represent the goddess Ganga transforming herself into a river and then flowing from the toe of Vishnu. She is said to have been brought from heaven by the prayers of Bhagiratha to purify the ashes of the 60,000 sons of King Sagara who had been consumed by the angry glance of the sage Kapila.

The Ganges, like many other ancient, highly revered streams, was an emblem of the flowing from spirit to matter, or from celestial realms to material, of occult forces including streams of wisdom and power flowing from heaven to earth or from gods to mankind, an idea which once understood kept perennially before people’s minds the reality of the spiritual worlds and their intimate interconnection with the realms of physical space and time.

As the true interpretation of this old tale gradually was lost, there arose the religious belief that the actual waters of the Ganges were sin-cleansing, reminiscent of the supposed sin-cleansing power of the river Jordan in Christian and even in certain Jewish thought.

Gangadvara (Sanskrit) Gaṅgādvāra [from gaṅgā the Ganges river + dvāra door] The door or opening of the Ganges; a town, now called Hardwar, at the foot of the Himalayas where legend says the sage Kapila sat in meditation for a number of years.

Ganga-Putra (Sanskrit) Gaṅgā-putra Son of the Ganges; among other things, a name of Karttikeya, the Hindu god of war.

Ganges River.See GANGA

Gangi (Sanskrit) Gaṅgi A renowned sorcerer, according to legend, in the time of Kasyapa Buddha, a predecessor of Gautama Buddha; regarded as an incarnation of Apalala, a naga who was the guardian spirit of the sources of the Subhavastu, a river in Udyana. Apalala is said to have been converted by Gautama Buddha and to have become an arhat.

Ganymede [from Greek and Latin Ganymedes] The fairest youth among mortals, abducted by Zeus. One interpretation is that when Ganymede, standing for objects of low desire, is seized by the World Lord of a darker cycle, Astraea, goddess of justice and purity, is cast out, and the Golden Age is then over (SD 2:785); astronomically, it stands for an inversion of the earth’s poles, which casts down Virgo (Astraea) and brings up Aquarius (Ganymedes).

Gaekarena, Gaokerena.See GOKARD

Garden of Eden.See EDEN; GAN-EDEN; PARADISE

Garm (Icelandic) The hound of Hel, queen of the underworld, depicted in the Eddas as bloody-jawed and chained in the Gnipa cave at the entrance to her realm. At the last battle he will break his bonds and battle with the god Tyr whereupon each will be bane to the other.

Garuda (Sanskrit) Garuḍa In Hindu mythology a gigantic half-man and half-bird, born from an egg brought forth by Vinata, wife of Kasyapa, the self-born sprung from time and one of the seven emanators of the world. Symbol of the great cycle or manvantara, Garuda is also an emblem of the sun and the solar cycle. He is made coeternal with Vishnu as one aspect or manifestation of Vishnu himself, who therefore is often described as riding on Garuda as Vishnu in space and time. Garuda’s son is Jatayu who in the Ramayana rushed to rescue Sita when she was carried off by Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka, but was slain in the ensuing conflict.

Garuda Purana (Sanskrit) Garuḍa Purāṇa One of the 18 principal Puranas of ancient India, relating principally to the birth of Garuda from Vinata.

Gates of Horn and Ivory.See WIND

Gates of Wisdom Qabbalistic term meaning, among other things, that a candidate for occult wisdom must pass through successive gates in order to attain the highest knowledge possible to human beings. A common figure of speech in the ancient world, e.g., Egypt. In the Qabbalah fifty gates are enumerated, but

“the number is a blind, and there are really 49 gates, . . . These ‘gates’ typify the different planes of Being or Ens. They are thus the ‘gates’ of life and the ‘gates’ of understanding or degrees of occult knowledge. These 49 (or 50) gates correspond to the seven gates in the seven caves of Initiation into the Mysteries of Mithra (see Celsus and Kircher). The division of the 50 gates into five chief gates, each including ten — is again a blind. It is in the fourth gate of these five, from which begins, ending at the tenth, the world of Planets, thus making seven, corresponding to the seven lower Sephiroth — that the key to their meaning lies hidden. They are also called the ‘gates of Binah’ or understanding” (TG 120).

Gatha (Sanskrit) Gāthā [from the verbal root gā to sing] A song, metrical hymn, or verse; usually applied to a verse consisting of a moral aphorism which belongs not to the Vedic writings but to the Itihasas or the epic poetry and legends of a later date. A gatha of eight equal feet or 32 syllables is called aryagiti.

Gati (Sanskrit) Gati Way, course, path; “the six (esoterically seven) conditions of sentient existence. These are divided into two groups: the three higher and the three lower paths. To the former belong the devas, the asuras and (immortal) men; to the latter (in exoteric teachings) creatures in hell, pretas or hungry demons, and animals. Explained esoterically, however, the last three are the personalities in Kamaloka, elementals and animals. The seventh mode of existence is that of the Nirmanakaya . . .” (TG 125).

A gati is the path or sphere of existence entered upon by entities impelled because of past karma. If a person lives a noble and upright life, his gati will be the path or sphere of humanity in its higher aspects. If he deliberately lives an evil, degenerate existence, his course or next sphere of existence will be a rebirth in some degenerate human form or sphere of activity. Similarly with the divinities and all other entities: they find their succeeding spheres of life and action strictly according to karma. For karma is universal; and what one makes himself to be, that in very truth he shall become. The becoming in every instance and sphere of the manifested universe is according to the persisting karmic conditions impelling, and occasionally compelling, an entity into this, that, or some other of the gatis.

Gatra (Sanskrit) Gātra [from the verbal root gā to go, move] A limb or member of the body; in the plural, mystically refers to the limbs of Brahma, from which the seven mind-born sons, the kumaras or manasaputras, are said to be born. The feminine form sometimes is used as a name of the earth, the Mover.

Gaudapada (Sanskrit) Gauḍapāda A celebrated Brahmin teacher, author of the Commentaries on the Sankhya-Karika, Mandukya-Upanishad, and other works.

Gauri (Sanskrit) Gaurī Feminine adjective brilliant, beautiful. Frequently used for feminine beings or entities, it means a maid; the earth; the goddess Parvati; consort of Siva and of Varuna; and likewise the Mother of Sakyamuni, Gautama Buddha.

Gautama (Sanskrit) Gautama Gotama (Pali) The sacerdotal name of the Sakya family, hence the name of Prince Siddhartha, the son of Suddhodana of Kapilavastu. Gautama Buddha was also called Sakyamuni, meaning the muni or sage of the Sakyas.

Gavel.See MALLET

Gaya (Sanskrit) Gayā A famous city of pilgrimage in Bihar, India, a little north of the modern Bodhgaya, where Sakyamuni reached buddhaship.

Every orthodox Brahmin is supposed to repeat this archaic hymn, at least mentally, at both his morning and evening religious devotions. An explanatory paraphrase, giving the inner meaning of the Gayatri is: O thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illumine our hearts and fill our minds, so that we, recognizing our oneness with the divinity which is the heart of the universe, may see the pathway before our feet, and tread it to those distant goals of perfection stimulated by thine own radiant light.

“First it [the light of the Logos] is the life, or the Mahachaitanyam of the cosmos; that is one aspect of it; secondly, it is force, and in this aspect it is the Fohat of the Buddhist philosophy; lastly, it is wisdom, in the sense that it is the Chichakti [Chichchakti] of the Hindu philosophers. All these three aspects are . . . combined in our conception of the Gayatri” (N on BG 90).

Gayomard, Gayo-martan.See KAYUMARS

Geber (Hebrew) Geber [from gābar to be strong, plural gibbōrīm] Man, with the connotation of might or strength; hence a mighty or strong man. Intimately connected with the word kabbirim (kabiri or kabeiroi), geber has a triple meaning, signifying a mighty spiritual power or being, of angelic character, as well as giants or titans on earth — the latter the reflection of the former. The planets, likewise, because of their indwelling spiritual angels or rectors, are frequently called by the same name. See also Gibborim.

Ge’boorah.See GEBURAH

Geborim.See GEBER; GIBBORIM

Geburah (Hebrew) Gĕbūrāh Strength, might, power; the fifth Sephirah, also called Pahad (fear) and Din (judgment, justice), emanated from the four preceding Sephiroth. It is regarded in the Qabbalah as a passive potency, a feminine aspect, the second in the left pillar of the Sephirothal Tree. Its Divine Name is usually pointed by Qabbalists ’Eloha, though this word is most often found in its slightly shortened form of ’Eloah or ’Eloah. In the Angelic Order Geburah is represented as the Seraphim. In its application to the human body, it is regarded as the left arm; while in its application to the seven globes of a planetary chain it corresponds to globe A (SD 1:200). From this Sephirah is emanated the sixth, Tiph’ereth.

Gedulah (Hebrew) Gĕdūlāh Greatness, majesty; in the Qabbalah, another name for the Sephirah Hesed.

Geh (Pahlavi) A wicked female demon who comes to the assistance of Ahriman to vex Ahura-Mazda’s creation.

Gehenna.See GEI’ HINNOM

Gehs.See GAH

Gei’ Hinnom (Hebrew) Gēi’ Hinnōm Also Gai-hinnom. The valley of Hinnom, generally rendered as by the Greek Gehenna, situated south of Jerusalem, in which was Tophet where children were at one time sacrificed to Moloch (2 Kings 23:10). Later the place was used as a crematorium for the refuse of the city, perpetual fires being kept for that purpose. In the Bible it is translated as hell or hell of fire, but the Hebrew word bears no such interpretation. The Greek Gehenna “is identical with the Homeric Tartarus” (IU 2:507).

In the Zohar and Talmud, the place of purification. After death, Dumah (the Angel of Death, or the shadowy land of silence, the region of the astral dead — She’ol, Hades, the underworld) leads the impure Neshamah to the dwelling of Gei’ Hinnom, where it must be purified in order to proceed upon its journey (Zohar i 218b). Just as cities need a crematorium for purifying purposes, so has the earth a gehenna, a planet like our own which is “termed by the occultists the eighth sphere . . . on which all the dross and scorification of the cosmic matter pertaining to our planet is in a continual state of remodelling” (IU 1:328).

Geist (German) Spirit.

Gelukpas (Tibetan) dge lugs pa (ge-lug-pa, ge-luk-pa) Also Gelugpas. Model of virtue, or a contraction for earlier names of Tsong-kha-pa’s school dga’ ldan pa’i lugs, or dga’ ldan lugs pa, derived from the name of the great monastery of Ganden (dga ldan) which he founded. Those who follow the precepts inaugurated by the Tibetan Buddhist reformer Tsong-kha-pa (1358-1417).

Buddhism was introduced into Tibet in the latter half of the 8th century, but was colored by a Tantric element and Bon, the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion, both of which were quite foreign to the teachings of Gautama Buddha. The state of the priesthood was then so low, and the religion so degraded, that the reforms instituted by Tsong-kha-pa were generally welcomed. A far stricter code of morals was laid down for the priests who were forbidden to marry or to drink wine; and to distinguish the Kah-dum-pas (those bound by ordinances), the wearing of yellow robes and hoods was inaugurated in contradistinction to the red robes and the black robes of the degenerate sects; hence following Chinese usage, the Gelukpas are commonly called the Yellow Caps, Yellow Hats, or Yellow Hoods.

Tsong-kha-pa founded the large lamaseries at Ganden and Sera, which with the Drepung lamasery were the three most powerful religious bodies in Tibet — called the Three Pillars of the State (den-sa sum). His successor Geden-tub-pa founded the monastery of Tashi-lhunpo — which in the 17th century became the residence of the Panchan Lama. In 1641 the Red Caps were completely subdued by the Oelot Mongols, by request of the fifth Dalai Lama (Lob-sang Gyatso); and ever since the Dalai Lamas have held the temporal sovereignty of Tibet, adhering to the Reformed Buddhism of the Gelukpas.

Gelung.See GEDONG

Gemara’ (Hebrew) Gĕmārā’ [from the verbal root gāmar to complete, perfect] Teaching leading to full initiation; the supplementary part of the Talmud based upon the Mishnah. The arrangement of the present Gemara’ is attributed originally to Rabbi Ashi (352-427).

Gematria [Hebrew/Aramaic gĕmaṭriyā’ from Greek geōmetría geometry] A Qabbalistic system of interpreting the Bible, consisting in finding the numerical value of a word or words — the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet each designating a number — and then substituting another word whose numerical value is equivalent to the one under consideration. Another method is that of using arithmetical values of words and phrases for interpretation of scriptures. This method forms one of the keys of interpreting sacred scriptures, although a very minor one, and in the hands of one who is inexpert an almost useless method.

Gemini The Twins; third zodiacal sign, an airy, masculine, common or mutable sign, corresponding to the shoulders, lungs, and arms. It governs the west and is the diurnal house of Mercury.

In Sanskrit the third sign is called Mithuna (pair, couple, also male and female); in the Hebrew system, assigning the twelve sons of Jacob to the twelve signs of the zodiac, Simeon and Levi represent Gemini.

Gemmation.See BUDDING

Genesis (Greek) Beginning; generation; birth, production; the first book in the Bible as translated into Greek, whose opening chapters deal with the genesis of worlds and creatures. The Book of Genesis is based on the cosmogony of the Chaldeans.

“The first three chapters are transcribed from the allegorical narratives of the beginnings common to all nations. Chapters four and five are a new allegorical adaptation of the same narration in the secret Book of Numbers; chapter six is an astronomical narrative of the Solar year and the seven cosmocratores from the Egyptian original of the Pymander and the symbolical visions of a series of Enoichioi (Seers) — from whom came also the Book of Enoch. The beginning of Exodus, and the story of Moses is that of the Babylonian Sargon, who having flourished . . . 3750 b.c. preceded the Jewish lawgiver by almost 2300 years. (See Secret Doctrine, vol. II., pp. 691 et seq.) Nevertheless, Genesis is an undeniably esoteric work. It has not borrowed, nor has it disfigured the universal symbols and teachings on the lines of which it was written, but simply adapted the eternal truths to its own national spirit and clothed them in
cunning allegories comprehensible only to its Kabbalists and Initiates” (TG 127).

Genius, Genii (Latin) [from the verbal root gen birth, innate] Generally an indwelling spiritual or ethereal being, as contrasted with a corporeal being. Genii are the active individualizing beings or elements in the constitution of any entity, although invariably of ethereal or spiritual type. For instance, in the human being, the intellectual genius is the manasaputra in our constitution; likewise our astral genius is the vital-astral monad, or astral person.

In one significance, a genius is an instructing divinity, but not necessarily of the higher classes. In the special sense found in Greek and Roman belief, the genii were personal tutelar deities of human beings, assigned to each one at birth, attending him through life, and conducting him to Hades at death. This genius was honored by rites and sometimes deified. The word is also used, as genius loci, to mean the deity that presides over a locality or over some topographical feature. These are the ethereal, as distinguished from the corporeal, forces in nature.

The word genius is also applicable to the divine instructors of individuals and races; while with the Gnostics it stood for aeons or angels. Atom, in its original sense and not as denoting a particle, is equivalent to genius, for in this original sense it is equivalent to the theosophical term life-atom.

The word is also familiar in its evil side, in the expression evil genius. Human beings hover between the influence of benign and malign powers which have been personified into guardian angels and besetting demons, or good and evil stars. The good and evil genii of the individual are among the karmic conditions which, interacting with free choice, modify his ruling destiny; they are either the heavenly voice of the invisible spiritual prototype, or the lower astral person.

In the wider meaning, genius stands for so great a range of beings as to comprise virtually all the hierarchies of dhyan-chohans, operative on all inner planes, including those denoted by god, deva, angel, daimon, etc.

In modern usage, genius is exalted intellectual power and creative ability, a remarkable aptitude for some special pursuit, which is the greatest responsiveness of the brain and brain-memory to the higher manas or mind. The bent or especial aptitude along a particular line is due to efforts made along that line in past lives now coming forth in force, and relatively unhindered by the necessity of having to go through every step of the learning stages. It is as though the genius is enabled to tap the garnered treasury of wisdom stored within the reincarnating ego, and it flows forth through his mind unhampered; whereas the average person, except at odd inspirational moments, cannot regularly make the connection with this inner store of wisdom and knowledge. See also JINN

Geocentric Theory A theory in which the earth is regarded as being at the center of the solar system, usually referring to the system of Claudius Ptolemy. In accordance with ancient teachings, Ptolemy represents the earth as surrounded by ten concentric spheres: those of water, air (or fire), Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the stars. To account for the actual irregularities of the planetary motions, he introduced eccentrics and epicycles as corrections, and by this means the system, though complicated, is workable. The heliocentric theory reduces the complication and anomaly to order and regularity. However, since we are living on the earth, and our consciousness is functioning on the corresponding plane, there is considerable justification for the adoption of a geocentric theory; and this may have been done for exoteric purposes by those who were actually aware of the heliocentric theory.

Geological Eras When H. P. Blavatsky was writing about the age of the earth in The Secret Doctrine she compared the teachings of the scientists of that time and found nothing but confusion and uncertainty as to geological figures. However, Professor Lefevre in his Philosophy adopted an original method of interpreting the data available. Instead of trying to reach exact figures in regard to the length of the entire fossil-bearing period of sedimentation from the Laurentian period to the present day, or of its subdivisions, he worked out the relative durations of the sedimentary deposits. With this for a background the actual duration of the eras and periods could easily be calculated when reliable evidence was found. Lefevre’s studies were based on the erosion of rocks and the deposition of sediments, and his conclusions have stood with little modification till now. H. P. Blavatsky noticed that his estimates of the relative duration of the geological
ages agreed fairly well with the ‘esoteric’ information in her possession, and so by adapting her knowledge of the real figures to Lefevre’s proportional scale she constructed a time table which, she says, approximates the truth “in almost every particular.” Her total of “320,000,000 years of sedimentation” is much less than that of modern geologists, even though she includes the Laurentian period in her table, which they omit. Her “Esoteric” table (SD 2:710) is as follows:

A glance at the modern table alongside hers will show how greatly modern geologists have extended their time periods. Two reasons are given for this great extension: first, the supposedly known and constant rate of radioactive disintegration in certain minerals found in the rocks; second, the modern belief that biological evolution by natural selection, etc., required far more time than formerly seemed necessary or permissible.

In her Esoteric table Blavatsky, following Lefevre’s arrangement, combines the three oldest periods, the Laurentian, Cambrian and Silurian, into her Primordial era. The two latter are now placed in the Paleozoic era, and the Laurentian and older rocks are included within the preceding Precambrian era, an enormously long complex of sedimentary, plutonic and metamorphosed rocks lying in tangled confusion below the Paleozoic strata, and in which forms of life are very scanty or altogether absent. The Precambrian era was longer than all the subsequent eras combined, and probably covers much of the “third round” evolution of life on this globe, for Blavatsky says that her 320,000,000 years of sedimentation, which approximates to the time elapsed since the Precambrian era, refers to this round (the fourth) of the human life-wave, for “it must be noted that even a greater time elapsed during the preparation of this globe for the Fourth Round previous to stratification” (SD 2:715n). The tremendous
cataclysms and the general transformations of the earth’s crust that took place at the end of the third round (greater than any of the “revolutions” that have happened since) destroyed nearly all traces of the third round forms of life. A few living entities, mostly or entirely marine, managed to exist in and survive the great disturbances during the dawning of the opening drama of the fourth round. Their fossils are found in the earliest periods of the Paleozoic era associated with the rather more advanced forms which gradually superseded them (SD 2:712).

The scheme of terrestrial evolution from the standpoint of the ancient wisdom given in TheSecret Doctrine is, in a few words: the earth we see is the fourth of a sevenfold “chain” of globes which constitutes a single organism, as we may call it. The other six globes are not visible to our gross senses but the entire group is intimately connected. The vast stream of human monads circulates seven times round the earth planetary chain during the great cycle. We are now in the fourth circulation or round of the great pilgrimage on our globe and so this period is called the fourth round. While on our globe we pass through seven stages called “root-races,” each lasting for millions of years. Each in its turn is subdivided into smaller septenary sections. Each succeeding root-race is shorter than its predecessor, and there is some overlapping. Great geological changes separate each root-race from its successor and only a comparatively few survivors remain to provide the seed for
the next root-race.

The individualized life cycles in the rounds are associated with diversities in environment. Each round is a component part of a great serial order of evolution which may be summarized as the gradual descent of spirit into matter and the subsequent ascent. The first round, even on this globe, was highly spiritual and ethereal: the succeeding rounds are less so, until the middle of the fourth round is reached. After that axial period the process is reversed and by degrees the original state of ethereality is reassumed. A similar process takes place within each round, but on a minor scale — smaller cycles within a dominant one. The physical condition of the earth’s substance is modified in a corresponding way. The amazing modern discoveries of the nature of the atom, of its transmutations, and of the transformation of ‘matter’ into energy have removed any prima facie objections to such a process.

The first root-race of the fourth round was by far the longest of its seven root-races, because within it were included advanced monads from the third round or life-wave on this globe, called sishtas (those left behind to serve as “seeds of life” for the returning life-wave in the succeeding round), and other forerunners, who preceded by millions of years the main aggregation of monads that formed the first root-race properly so called. The second root-race was not so long as the first, the third was considerably shorter, and so forth. We are now about halfway through the fifth root-race, and two-and-a-half root-races are still to come before the end of the fourth round on this globe. The fourth round contains the period of greatest materiality for the vehicles of the monad during the entire seven rounds, and during this middle round the ascent of the ladder of spiritual unfoldment begins. Although the “physical” conditions of the entire fourth round were denser than those of its predecessors,
the early part of the fourth, which includes the first and second root-races and most of the third, was still quite ethereal and no material traces of man have been left for science to discover. In the fourth root-race, the earth itself became hard and dense.

In regard to the dates and duration of the earlier root-races of the fourth round we are given but little information. We can, however, place the early root-races approximately side by side with the periods and dates given by H. P. Blavatsky in her Esoteric table and reach a fairly close idea of their antiquity. From some casual hints contained in TheSecret Doctrine it is clear that the first root-race began before the Mesozoic (Secondary) era, most probably in the Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) period in the Paleozoic, but possibly earlier. According to the Esoteric table this could even be almost 150,000,000 years ago. The ethereal first root-race, which did not know physical “death,” gradually blended with the second root-race in the Permian period.

It is noteworthy that there is some parallelism between the root-races and the periods beginning with great geological, climatic, and biological changes called by geologists “revolutions.” This applies even to the earliest or ethereal races. At least four and possibly more have taken place, the most important and earth-shaking being that which ushered in the fourth round (about the end of the Precambrian era as already mentioned). As we are only in the fifth root-race no doubt we shall experience other cataclysmic changes during the closing period of this round on this globe. We read in The Secret Doctrine:

As land needs rest and renovation, new forces, and a change for its soil, so does water. Thence arises a periodical redistribution of land and water, change of climates, etc., all brought on by geological revolution, and ending in a final change in the axis. — 2:726

The exact duration of the rounds or the root-races has never been given out; and the geologists are not inclined to commit themselves definitely in regard to the length of their eras and periods. But there is no doubt of the actuality of the serial events or cyclic repetitions and of the order in which they occur, irrespective of the number of years that may be assigned to them.

Nothing definite is revealed about the chronology of the four earlier subraces of the third root-race, but approximately exact figures are given for the first time when we reach the fifth subrace, and we learn that about 18,618,000 years have elapsed from that subrace to the present day. This period is called by Blavatsky that of “our humanity” because the characteristics of mankind as we understand it — physically, emotionally and mentally — showed their first indications in the fifth subrace.

We have, however, so greatly changed since the monad emerged from the shadowy ethereal vestures or vehicles of “pre-human man” that as Blavatsky says:

that which Science — recognizing only physical man — has a right to regard as the prehuman period, may be conceded to have extended from the First Race down to the first half of the Atlantean [Fourth] race, since it is only then that man became the “complete organic being he is now.” And this would make Adamic man no older than a few million of years. — SD 2:315

According to the dating in the Esoteric table, the third root-race was at its peak in the Jurassic period, becoming denser in the Cretaceous period and ending in the early Cenozoic era. It overlapped the fourth root-race, commonly called the Atlantean, which reached its middle period 8-9,000,000 years ago, near the beginning of the earliest division of the Cenozoic era, the Paleocene. The disastrous breaking up of the main Atlantean continental area occurred in the Miocene period, but portions such as the great islands, Ruta and Daitya, lingered until much later, and Plato’s small “island of Atlantis” perished only 11-12,000 years ago.

As Vaivasvata’s humanity, in which we are particularly interested, began to develop 18-19,000,000 years ago, it is obviously far older than the Cenozoic era which, according to the Esoteric table, began about 8,960,000 years ago, but here we find a striking unconformity between modern geology and the esoteric teaching. In several places Blavatsky envisages the possibility that the geologists might increase their estimate of the length of the Cenozoic era, and says that this would not be disturbing.

It may make our position plainer if we state at once that we use Sir C. Lyell’s nomenclature for the ages and periods, and that when we talk of the Secondary and Tertiary age, of the Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene periods — this is simply to make our facts more comprehensible. Since these ages and periods have not yet been allowed fixed and determined durations, 2½ and 15 million years being assigned at different times to one and the same age (the Tertiary) — and since no two geologists and naturalists seem to agree on this point — Esoteric teachings may remain quite indifferent to whether man is shown to appear in the Secondary or the Tertiary age. If the latter age may be allowed even so much as 15 million years’ duration — well and good; for the Occult doctrine, jealously guarding its real and correct figures as far as concerns the First, Second, and two-thirds of the Third Root-Race — gives clear information upon one point only — the age of “Vaivasvata Manu’s humanity.” (SD 2:693)

Though Vaivasvata’s humanity — our humanity — has existed for 18-19,000,000 years, and for less than half that time we have been complete organic beings, we may look forward to many more millions of years before any radical changes will take place in our physical structure. During the fourth root-race, the Atlantean, the lowest stage of materiality was reached, and we in the fifth root-race are now somewhat less physically dense. By the time we attain the seventh root-race of this fourth round, in the far distant future, our flesh will have become much more refined and almost translucent, and near the close of the manvantara or great life-period of planetary evolution in the seventh round we shall have risen so far above the lower cosmic plane in which our earth now functions that our highly ethereal bodies “are of light.” ( )

Germ In cosomogenesis, the germ stands for the first well-developed localized cosmic entity, luminous and semi-astral, that is to be a future world, whether a globe or a sun. Hence the germ is the developed resultant of the first cosmic impulse of the primeval intelligent formative principle working downwards into manifestation. This stage in the evolution of a cosmic entity, whether globe or sun, in Sanskrit is called hiranyagarbha (golden germ or womb), for out of the germ as from a womb springs or evolves the entity later to appear. The Secret Doctrine (2:176) speaks of the self-existent Kama, born from the heart of Brahma, as the personification of “the first movement that stirred the ONE, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create, ‘Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; . . . the bond which connects Entity with Non-Entity.’”

Japanese cosmogony says that “out of the chaotic mass, an egg-like nucleus appears, having within itself the germ and potency of all the universal as well as of all terrestrial life” (SD 1:216).

The fourth order of celestial beings, the highest group among those monads invested with their appropriate forms for that plane, is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual souls, and they constitute, through the next lower order “the first group of the first septenary host — the great mystery of human conscious and intellectual Being. For the latter are the field wherein lies concealed in its privation the germ that will fall into generation. That germ will become the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties and all the inherent qualities in man” (SD 1:218-19). See also BACTERIA

Germain, Count St.See SAINT-GERMAIN

Germ-Buds.See BUDDING

Germ Cell The early physical vehicle or carrier of the ’ “spiritual plasm’ that dominates the germinal plasm” in the development of the embryo (SD 1:219); “every germ-cell, human or other, is the physical expression of inner, ethereal, and psycho-magnetic activities, and is a compact or bundle or sheaf of inner forces and substances ranging from the divine through intermediate degrees down to the astral and the physical, just as man, but on a much larger scale, himself is” (ET 487 3rd & rev ed). Each germ-cell is the precipitation or projection on and into the physical plane of an inner, psycho-ethereal radiation, an incarnation of a ray point originating in the inner worlds and contacting physical matter by psychomagnetic affinity, and thus arousing a proper particle or molecular aggregate of living physical substance into becoming a reproductive cell. This ray point or tip of the imbodying ray or radiance, is not the reincarnating ego itself, but the tip of the projected ray issuing
from the reimbodying ego. When this ego — itself a ray from the spiritual monad — reaches its own intermediate sphere, after leaving its parent-monad, it descends no farther into matter from that plane. But its radiated influence, its psychomagnetic ray, having stronger affinities for material worlds than itself, goes deeper into matter and there awakens into activity the life-atoms in each of the various planes between that of the reimbodying ego and the grossest matter of physical earth. When this psycho-vital-electric or -magnetic ray awakens some particular life-atom in gross physical matter on earth, that life-atom so chosen belonged to the same reimbodying ego before, and therefore responds to its own “parent.” It may even be regarded as the tip of the reimbodying ray from which it is precipitated into matter, “which physical matter, as atoms, is thus attracted around this tip, building first the material imbodiment of the said life-atom and by progressive accretion finally becoming the living
germ-cell” (ET 488 4 3rd & rev ed).

This descent of the ray tip into, and selection of, suitable earth of matter, has been the basis of all the various methods of procreation. The process began in the huge avoid form of the ethereal first root-race by simple division of this human cell, as the embryo today repeats in beginning its rapid review of racial records. “One infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others at work in the formation of an organism, determining alone and unaided, by means of constant segmentation and multiplication, the correct image of the future man (or animal) in its physical, mental, and psychic characteristics. . . . those germinal cells do not have their genesis at all in the body of the individual, but proceed directly from the ancestral germinal cell passed from father to son through long generations” (SD 1:223n). See also HEREDITY; PROCREATION; REPRODUCTION

Germ Plasm A term used by German biologist August Weismann (1894-1914) for the hereditary material in each cell passed unchanged from generation to generation. The cell was divided into somatic plasm and germ plasm, the latter divided into the dormant portion passed on to the next generation unchanged and the active portion which was used to build the body. This passive germ plasm was “immortal” in that it was the identic to that belonging to a person’s earliest ancestor. See also HEREDITY

Ghadia (Prakrit) Medieval and modern form of the Sanskrit ghati, or ghatika, the 60th part of a day of 24 hours.

Ghaf.See KAF

Gharma-ja (Sanskrit) Gharma-ja [from gharma heat, warmth, perspiration from the verbal root ghṛ to moisten, wet (cf Greek thermos heat) + ja born] Sweat-born; title of Karttikeya, said to have been born of Siva’s vital sweat. Karttikeya is one of the most important of the kumaras of archaic Hindu occult legends, the kumaras being virginal divinities who sprang from the body of Brahma. As Brahma is the Third Logos, whatever minor parts the kumaras may play in subsequent cosmic history, their primary importance was in the building of the universe.

Ghatkas, Ghatikas.See GHADIA

Ghocha.See GHOSHA

Ghools.See GHOUL

Ghosha (Sanskrit) Ghoṣa An indistinct noise; tumult; a sound of words or cries heard at a distance. In Buddhism, a great arhat, author of the Abhidharmamrita-Sastra.

Ghost The occasional apparitions of deceased persons — but in no instances whatsoever of the spirits of the dead — or invisible astral entities producing various psychic phenomena. This age-old belief is consistent with the breaking up of composite human nature into its component parts at death. As the astral model-body, when freed from its familiar physical duplicate, is still magnetically attached to the body, it is sometimes seen haunting the new grave for a short time. Soon the atoms of this shadowy form begin to dissipate. But the more ethereal and enduring astral atoms cohere in the kama-rupic body of the deceased person’s lower mental, emotional, and psychic nature. These imbodied lower passions and desires become in connection with their astral automatic vehicle an earth-bound entity when they are separated from the reimbodying ego at the second death in the purgatorial astral underworld. These so-called spooks are what the Roman writers named umbrae or larvae of the dead;
earlier, the Greeks spoke of these human reliquiae as eidola — the astral “images” of the dead. The ancients were well informed regarding the shades or shells which were cast off by the purified inner self when it ascended from kama-loka to its devachan in higher spheres.

The kama-rupic shades, whether mere shells or not, are usually invisible but they are sometimes seen by clairvoyants. The more coherent ones are the shells of gross or wicked people and are influences of sensual or evil trend which instinctively haunt the atmosphere of persons and places whose characters or conditions are congenial to them and therefore magnetically attract them. Even well-meaning sensitives and persons of mediumistic or psychic type, being relatively negative physically because more or less aware on the astral plane, are susceptible, at times, to some of these strangely perverse and obsessing influences. The ancient teachings show why people’s instinctive dread of the ghostly dregs or remnants of the personal self is well founded.

Ghoul [from Arabic ghul, ghuwal] In popular Arabic lore a class of evil beings, haunting the mountains and woods and preying upon mankind and animals. More specifically, the astral or astral-physical entities haunting cemeteries or burial grounds, with an eye upon the danger to humans or animals who come into contact with them. These Arabic ghouls are earth-bound kama-rupas of the most debased and material type, and parallel the Hindu preta of the lowest type, or even the pisachas, etc.

Gian-ben-Gian.See GYAN

Giant The universal tradition of gigantic human beings and beasts points back to the Lemurian and Atlantean races, which were physically gigantic as compared with humankind of today. Also often popularly used as an equivalent of demons, titans, daityas, asuras, danavas, gibborim, jotuns, etc., here having reference to the powers of earth who contended against the gods in the early periods of the formation of the globe and its populations.

Gibborim (Hebrew) Gibbōrīm [plural of geber mighty man from gābar to be strong] Generally refers to the antediluvian giants or Atlanteans, the fourth root-race of mankind. In the fifth root-race they became known as the kabiri — the early mighty men of wisdom (SD 2:273). See also GEBER

Gilgoolem.See GILGULIM

Gilgulim (Hebrew) Gilgūlīm [from the verbal root gālal to roll, revolve] Wheels; cycling, whether of things or of periods of time; a whirlwind, and things driven by a whirlwind. In the Qabbalah, used to express the doctrine of the revolution, whirling, or cycling of souls in both space and time: “All the souls go up into the gil-gool-ah [gilgula’], i.e. revolutions or turnings . . . How many Gilgoolem and how many hidden things, the Holy does with them? . . . And how many worlds turn around with them, and how the world turns around in so many hidden wonders? And the children of man do not know and do not comprehend, how the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a sling” (Zohar ii 99b).

Orthodox Qabbalists maintain that after death the soul goes through a series of whirlings or cyclings, finding no rest until the “immortal particle” reaches Palestine (the promised land). “The process was supposed to be accomplished by a kind of metempsychosis, the psychic spark being conveyed through bird, beast, fish, and the most minute insect. . . . The Allegory relates to the atoms of the body, which have each to pass through every form before all reach the final state, which is the first starting point of the departure of every atom — its primitive laya State. But the primitive meaning of Gilgoolem, or ‘Revolution of Souls,’ was the idea of the re-incarnating Souls or Egos” (SD 1:568n).

The lowest of the four ‘olams (worlds or spheres) named ‘Asiyyah is also called the world of the gilgulim. A further reference to gilgulim is in the representation of the Sephirothal scheme of the ten spheres, the first being called re’shith hag-gilgulim — the commencement of whirling motions from and under the primum mobile.

One of the treatises usually included in the Zohar, “The Book of the Revolutions of Souls,” is considered to be an explanation of Rabbi Loria’s ideas contained in Beth ’Elohim — also part of the Zohar.

Gimil, Gimle.See GIMLI

Gimli (Icelandic) [from gimill, himill, himin heaven] In Norse mythology, a heavenly abode, where “gentle gods of the chosen” shall abide in serenity after the destruction of the present world system (Ragnarok). Not to be confused with Valhalla, where Odin’s heroes rest between battles on the Plain of Consecration (Vigridsslatten).

In Gimli a golden palace will shine brighter than the sun. It will surpass in splendor the heavens named Audlang [from aud empty, desolate + lang vast, spacious] and Vidblain [from vid wide, spacious + bla blue] and will be the future home of the gods when they return after Ragnarok. “These are the three gradually ascending planets of our ‘Chain.’ There the gods were enthroned, as they used to be. . . . From Gimil’s heights (the seventh plane or globe, the highest and the purest), they looked down upon the happy descendants of LIF and LIFTHRASIR (the coming Adam and Eve of purified humanity), and signed to them to CLIMB up higher, to rise in knowledge and wisdom, step by step, from one ‘heaven to another,’ until they were at last fit to be united to the Gods in the house of All-Father” (SD 2:100). This is foretold by the sibyl in Voluspa.

Gin-Hoang.See T’IEN-HUANG

Ginnungagap (Icelandic) [from ginn vast, wide + unga bring to birth, hatch (as an egg) + gap chasm, maw] The gaping void of Norse mythology; space as an unimaginable abstraction, without form and void. The formless void that preceded creation, and the abode of the gods during the long night of nonbeing. The prefix “ginn” is found only in conjunction with such words a ginnheilog (the supreme divine essence), ginnregin (the highest gods, superior to the aesir and even the vanir). Ginnungave represents the “most holy sanctuaries” — the universe. Odin in his loftiest aspect is referred to as ginnarr, connoting the aether or Sanskrit akasa. The verb ginna also means to delude or play a trick on.

According to the Edda’s poetic description, before the existence of worlds, there was naught but Ginnungagap. All matter was frozen in a state of nonbeing, for in the absence of the energizing impulsion (the gods) nothing moved, no atoms existed, hence no matter. This state of non-existence was portrayed as the frost giant Ymir, which resulted when heat from the fiery world, Muspellsheim (home of flame), met the vapors from the world of mists, Niflheim (home of nebulae), creating fertile vapor in the void.

The cow Audhumla licked salt from the blocks of ice and uncovered the head of Buri (King Bore of Swedish tradition), personification of frozen, unmoving nonbeing. From Buri emanated Bur and from this second stage (or second divine Logos) descended the creative trinity of gods: Odin, Vile, and Vi, which powers together “slew” Ymir and with his body (matter) formed the worlds.

Giol, Gjol (Icelandic) [from gjoll din] In Norse mythology, one of the rivers of elivagar (icicle waves) which flow from Hvergelmir, the source of absolute matter, the abyss. It is bridged by the gold-covered Gjallarbru (noisy bridge) which leads to the realm of Hel, queen of the dead.

Glamour.See FASCINATION

Gland.See PINEAL GLAND; PITUITARY GLAND

Globe In theosophy, a unit in the constitution of every planet or sun, each of which is composed of several globes, in their entirety referred to as a planetary or solar chain. Furthermore, moons, nebulae, and comets also have a seven or twelvefold constitution, even as has man, who is a copy in the small of the universe. These globes are analogous to the monadic centers in the human constitution. The seven manifested globes on the four lower cosmic planes for purposes of convenience are enumerated as A, B, C, D, E, F, G; but reference is sometimes made more mystically to the globes from “A to Z,” plainly hinting at all the globes of the chain. When considering seven cosmic planes, twelve globes are given. These globes are related to the seven (or twelve) sacred planets and to the twelve zodiacal constellations (diagram from FSO 323).

The life-waves, the various hosts or kingdoms such as elemental, mineral, animal, human, or devas, circle around these globes in seven great cycles called rounds. Each life-wave in turn first enters globe A, runs through its life cycle there, and then passes in time on to globe B, the succeeding life-wave meanwhile entering globe A, and so onwards and forwards through the whole series. In our own planetary chain, globe D is our earth. Three globes precede it on the downward arc, and three follow it on the ascending arc of evolution — referring here to the manifested seven globes. The passing through seven root-races of any kingdom or life-wave on any globe is called a globe-round.

The seven globes can be related to the Qabbalistic worlds and sephiroth, as Blavatsky did (SD 1:200):

See also PLANETARY CHAIN

Globe-round In theosophical terminology, the passage of one life-wave through seven root-races on one globe. Seven (or ten or twelve) globe-rounds — one on each globe of a planetary chain — is called a planetary round. See also ROUND; INNER ROUND

Globe, Winged A very ancient Egyptian design of a globe borne on wings, with two uraei or mystic serpents on either side of the globe, incubating it with their breath. The symbol signifies regeneration; also the passage from the illusory past through the present and into the illusory future, which all things of material type must undergo. It signifies the rebirth of the world from pralaya into manvantara, sinking again into pralaya, and again winging its way out of the vast womb and deeps of cosmic spatial consciousness into individualized existence. It signifies the passing of entities from one imbodiment to another. The globe itself is symbolic of the center of consciousness; the wings signify the passage through time and space: the passage from planet to planet and from planet to sun; from sun to stars; and the return. The two serpents signify the mystic powers of consciousness and will; of life and death.